In a computing system that supports three-dimensional (3D) graphics display modes, the operating system may not be 3D-aware, and support for the 3D graphics display modes may be implemented by other components of the system. Under such circumstances, the task of enabling or disabling the 3D graphics display modes may be left to the various graphics applications that use those display modes. For example, a 3D-aware graphics application may send an instruction to elements of the computing device to enter a 3D-enabled state, and upon termination, may send an instruction to elements of the computing device to exit the 3D-enabled state. However, if the 3D-aware graphics application terminates unexpectedly, it may fail to send an instruction to exit the 3D-enabled state, and the 3D-enabled state may persist unnecessarily. As such, there may be disadvantages associated with managing 3D graphics display modes from within the graphics applications that use them, such as excess power consumption and/or display corruption that may result from unnecessarily persisting a 3D-enabled state. Accordingly, techniques for managing 3D graphics display modes from outside of the graphics applications that use them are desirable.